Songfacts®:

• "If I Was The Priest" dates back to Springsteen's singer-songwriter days in the early '70s. The song is a wild narrative with a Catholic/Wild West motif that imagines Jesus as a sheriff and Bruce as a priest.
• Fans have interpreted the song in different ways, with some seeing it as a reflection on Springsteen's own spiritual journey, and others as a commentary on the clash of good and evil.
  
  Springsteen places some biblical figures in unfamiliar territory, like the Virgin Mary running "the Holy Grail saloon" and the Holy Ghost hosting "the burlesque show."
• "Priest" has a deep history. Springsteen performed it solo on piano when he auditioned for John Hammond at Colombia back in 1972. It was one of the songs that clinched his record deal.
  
  Springsteen didn't consider the song for his 1973 Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. debut album, but the following year, Hollies singer Allan Clarke recorded it for a solo album.
  
  "Priest" remained untouched in Springsteen's archives for almost 50 years. In 2019, The Boss came across the track while assembling a compilation album and re-recorded it with the E Street Band, primarily out of curiosity about how it would sound. Impressed with the outcome, he included it on his Letter to You album alongside two other previously unreleased tracks, "Song For Orphans" and "Janey Needs A Shooter."
  
  "The modern band playing those ideas that I had as a 22-year-old - and for some reason it just fit on the record, because the record skips through time," Springsteen told Apple Music of reviving the three songs. "It starts with me thinking about when I was 14 and 15, and then it moves into the present. So those songs added a little touchstone for that certain period of time. I went back and I found a voice that really fit them, and they're a nice addition to the record."
• Springsteen performed "If I Was The Priest" for the first time in 51 years on February 14, 2023. On tour with his E Street Band, he resurrected the song at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
  
  "I wrote this song. I was 22, 15 years ago," the musician joked before playing it. "And I still don't have a clue what the f--k it's about."
  
  Springsteen's previous known live performance of the song was on May 2, 1972, at New York's Gaslight Au Go Go nightclub.